On arrival I noticed that the Hall's Agricultural Sale was on at the rear of the gallops field. This sale is kind of like agricultural car boot (or should that be tractor boot!) and the disturbance usually impacts on bird sightings from that area. Amazingly, the ♂ Whinchat seemed totally oblivious to it and was still present perching on the Ragwort in the same field. It is now an incredible 7th day that this stunning little chat has been present.
From the gallops I checked out the set-aside where again a single Marbled White was present and again it gave me the runaround as I tried and failed to capture a better record shot! Also noticeable from my last visit was a further increase in the numbers of Gatekeeper on the wing.
My final stop was the beet field where I noted 3 Corn Buntings, 2 Yellowhammers, 1 Skylark and a juvenile Common Whitethroat. A ♀ Sparrowhawk also went through.
Gatekeeper
Just caught up with this and your previou8s posts Jason.
ReplyDeleteWell done with the Whinchat, not a bird I see too often around here!
And what a great find the Marbled White was too, never seen one on my local patch unfortunately.
Cheers Phil. I am a big fan of chats as I have mentioned (probably too) often on this blog in the past, but it is really nice to have a longer stayer like this!
ReplyDeleteThose Whinchat can stay around for a week or two in the Autumn Jase, I find that here. Not the case in spring though :-)
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not Warren it's the first time I have had a long stayer on the patch. They are almost always one day birds here!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you saw the Marbled White again.
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